Annamalai University has announced indefinite suspension of classes of all departments and directed hostel students to vacate before November 12.
Registrar R.Meenakshisundaram, in a statement, stated that the classes to re-start after the Deepavali holidays on November 14 have been indefinitely postponed. The practical tests and other examinations scheduled for November 12 too have been put off and the revised examination schedule would be announced later.
However, the statement seems to have sacred the Joint Action Council of the teaching and the non-teaching staff of the university. The convener of the JAC R.Udaiachandran told this correspondent that all its members were shaken by the so-called bailout plan mooted out by the university.
The proposal to either cut the staff salary or reduce the staff strength has sent shock waves among faculty members and other employees. When they voiced their strong protest against such a move, Vice-Chancellor M.Ramanathan on Saturday called up the JAC office-bearers to tell them that there would not be any retrenchment.
However, the Vice-Chancellor observed that he could not give any assurance about the salary aspect. Mr Udaiachandran said that earlier the university had sent a circular stating that the faculty and the employees should not give credence to reports appearing in the media about the financial status of the university and salary cuts.
But the university was not clear when the JAC demanded a written assurance that that the former would neither resort to any salary cut nor reduce the staff strength.
It had told the Vice-Chancellor that it would wait till the evening of November 14 for a positive response.
Depending on its reaction the JAC would convene its general body the following day to chart out its course of action.
Mr. Udaiachandran noted that Saturday’s direction to hostel students to vacate the rooms before November 12 made the JAC members suspect the motive of the university authorities. It looked as if the university was keen on going ahead with its austerity measures, he added.
